Congressman Collins pushing for more accurate national employment picture

by jmaloni

Press release

Tue, Apr 9th 2013 06:15 pm

Congressman
Chris Collins, NY-27, is co-sponsoring legislation in the House of
Representatives that would help create a more accurate picture of
America's unemployment problem. Currently, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics' measure that calculates the monthly unemployment figure
does not include the number of people who have given up looking for
work. The Real Unemployment
Calculation Act (H.R. 484) would require that this measure be
included in the overall monthly unemployment figure.

The
national unemployment figure for March was 7.6 percent. However, if
the calculation included the number of people who are able to work,
but have become too discouraged to continue to look for a job, the
unemployment figure would have increased to 8.9 percent.

"As
leaders in Washington continue to debate how best to help our country
recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression, we need
an accurate picture of America's unemployment problem," Collins
said. "By not including the number of people who stopped looking
for work in the monthly figure, we are pretending the situation is
far rosier than those who are currently unemployed know it to be.
Washington must face the jobs crisis in this country head on, and I
am hopeful that being confronted with the complete unemployment
picture each month will spur lawmakers and the president to work with
the business community to get our economy moving to help employers
expand their businesses and create jobs."

This
legislation was introduced by Congressman Duncan Hunter of
California.